METHOD OF SECURING ELONGATED OBJECTS TO A FLOATING COVER
A method of securing elongated objects, such as weights or floats to a floating cover. A first step involves providing a sheet form substrate. A second step involves forming elongated retention pockets on the substrate. A third step involves inserting elongated objects into the elongated retention pockets. This method allows thinner lower cost substrates to be used, while still facilitating secure attachment of weights or floats.
The present invention relates to a method of securing elongated objects, such as weights or floats to a floating cover, and a floating cover resulting from the method.
BACKGROUNDFloating covers have floats attached to provide needed buoyancy and weights attached to control slack and to protect against wind uplift. A gas collection cover is a particular type of floating cover. There is an increasing tendency to cover lagoons that release gas to atmosphere with gas collection covers. For example, sewage lagoons release methane gas to atmosphere. Sometimes gas collection covers are installed for environmental reasons. Sometimes gas collection covers are installed for commercial reasons, to capture and utilize the methane gas.
As gas collects under the gas collection cover, the gas tends to lift the gas collection covers off the surface of the pond or lagoon. Once lifted, the gas collection cover becomes vulnerable to wind damage, as it flaps over the surface of the pond or lagoon. Weights are, therefore, attached at spaced intervals to the gas collection cover in order to keep the gas collection cover in tension so it does not flap. The attaching of weights is presently a time consuming and labour intensive process. Previous gas collection covers have used polyethylene tubes filled with ballast as weights. These weight tubes were secured to the gas collection cover using straps that were bonded onto an upper surface of the gas collection cover.
SUMMARYAccording to one aspect there is provided a method of securing elongated objects, such as floats or weights, to a floating cover. A first step involves providing a sheet form substrate. A second step involves forming elongated retention pockets on the substrate. A third step involves inserting elongated objects into the elongated retention pockets. This method provides an advantage of allowing thinner lower cost substrates to be used, while still facilitating secure attachment of weights or floats.
These and other features will become more apparent from the following description in which reference is made to the appended drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and are not intended to in any way limit the scope of the invention to the particular embodiment or embodiments shown, wherein:
A method of securing elongated objects to a floating cover will now be described with reference to
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For some installations, having elongated retention pockets 30 positioned where substrates 12 have been joined will be insufficient. This may be the case where substrates 12 come in long lengths, thereby requiring fewer joints. In such cases, one, or both approaches may be used to ensure there are enough elongated retention pockets to accommodate sufficient floats to provide floatation and sufficient weights to keep floating cover 100 in place when gas starts to accumulate under floating cover 100.
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A further step is illustrated of pumping ballast 40 with pump 42 into each of weight tubes 38, while weight tubes 38 are positioned in situ within elongated retention pockets 30 of floating cover 100. Weight tubes 38 are provided with fill ports 44 at each end. When filling takes place from one end, the one of fill ports 44 at the other end serves as a vent for the release of air.
In the prior art, weights tubes were positioned onto gas collection covers with straps as it was deployed. With the present method, floating cover 100 can be fully deployed before the weight tubes are filled with ballast. This simplifies the deployment process. Once deployed, the filling with liquid ballast is relatively rapid. A further advantage of this teaching is that the weight tubes can be drained of ballast to simplify future cover replacement.
The liquid ballast 40 is selected based upon application requirements. For many applications water can be used. Water has neutral buoyancy when the cover is floating on water, but provides the required weight when accumulated gas physically lifts the cover from surface of the lagoon. In applications where greater weight is required, a slurry of sand and water, grout, or any other cementatious mixture can be used. Where freezing is of concern, liquid ballast can be selected based upon its ability to withstand freezing at anticipated temperatures.
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Advantages:
There are several advantages to using elongated retention pockets 30 over the prior art. Elongated retention pockets 30 are able to retain weight tubes 38 using lighter weight and less expensive materials to construct substrates 12. This is due to the fact that the weight of containing weight tubes 38 within pockets 30 is dispersed throughout the entire length of each elongated retention pocket 30. Traditional methods in the prior art would involve using straps which would require stronger materials to construct a gas collection cover with. In addition, elongated retention pockets 30 may be constructed within a factory. This is advantageous because it makes construction more consistent (using higher quality factory construction equipment) and installation in the field easier (no need to assemble cover 100 on site). Floating cover 100 may also be rolled up and transported to the field for easy installation and transportation. Furthermore, by containing weight tubes 38 entirely within elongated retention pockets 30, weight tubes 38 are protected from harmful UV exposure. This allows weight tubes 38 to be made from less expensive materials.
Variations:
In working with other types of floating covers, it has been determined that there is sometimes a need to secure floats to the floating covers. A variation of the present invention is to place floats into the pockets instead of or in addition to weight tubes. Referring to
In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and only one of the elements.
It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that modifications may be made to the illustrated embodiments without departing from scope of the Claims.
Claims
1. A method of securing elongated objects to a floating cover, comprising:
- providing at least one sheet form substrate;
- forming elongated retention pockets on the substrate; and
- inserting elongated objects into the elongated retention pockets.
2. The method of claim 1, the elongated objects being at least one of elongated weights or elongated floats.
3. The method of claim 1, the elongated weights being hollow weight tubes.
4. The method of claim 1, including a step of forming the elongated retention pockets by bonding a leading edge of a trailing substrate to a trailing edge of a leading substrate in overlapping relation with two parallel spaced bonded seams which extend toward opposed side edges of the respective leading substrate and the trailing substrate to form one of the elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams
5. The method of claim 1, including a step of forming the elongated retention pockets by bonding a strip of material in overlapping relation to the substrate with two parallel spaced bonded seams to form one of the elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams.
6. The method of claim 3, including a step of inserting the weight tubes into the elongated retention pockets before the weight tubes are filled with ballast and involving a further step of pumping ballast into each of the weight tubes in situ.
7. A method of securing elongated objects to a floating cover used for gas collection, comprising:
- (a) providing more than one gas impervious substrate having a leading edge, a trailing edge and opposed side edges;
- (b) forming elongated retention pockets on each substrate by bonding a strip of material which extends between the opposed side edges in overlapping relation to the substrate with two parallel spaced bonded seams which extend between the opposed side edges to form one of the elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams;
- (c) bonding the leading edge of a trailing substrate to the trailing edge of a leading substrate until a floating cover of a desired length has been formed;
- (d) inserting at least one of elongated weights or elongated floats into the elongated retention pockets.
8. The method of claim 7, involving inserting empty weight tubes into the elongated retention pockets during step (d); and
- (e) pumping ballast into each of the weight tubes in situ.
9. A method of securing elongated objects to a floating cover used for gas collection, comprising:
- (a) providing more than one gas impervious substrate having a leading edge, a trailing edge and opposed side edges;
- (b) bonding the leading edge of a trailing substrate to the trailing edge of a leading substrate in overlapping relation with two parallel spaced bonded seams which extend between the opposed side edges of the respective leading substrate and trailing substrate to form elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams;
- (c) repeating step (b) until a floating cover of a desired length with a desired number of the elongated retention pockets has been formed;
- (d) inserting at least one of elongated weights or elongated floats into the elongated retention pockets.
10. The method of claim 9, involving inserting empty weight tubes into the elongated retention pockets during step (d); and
- (e) pumping ballast into each of the weight tubes in situ.
11. A floating cover, comprising:
- a substrate having opposed side edges with continuous open ended elongated retention pockets extending between the opposed side edges.
12. The floating cover of claim 11, wherein a leading edge of a trailing substrate is bonded to a trailing edge of a leading substrate in overlapping relation with two parallel spaced bonded seams which extend between the opposed side edges of the respective leading substrate and trailing substrate to form one of the elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams.
13. The floating cover of claim 11, wherein strips of material extend between the opposed side edges of the substrate in overlapping relation, each strip of material being bonded to the substrate with two parallel spaced bonded seams which extend between the opposed side edges to form one of the elongated retention pockets between the bonded seams.
Type: Application
Filed: Jun 21, 2007
Publication Date: Dec 25, 2008
Inventors: Jason Jeffery Robert MacQueen (Edmonton), James Andrew Mills (Edmonton)
Application Number: 11/766,703
International Classification: B65D 88/34 (20060101); B65B 7/00 (20060101);